The Invention of Yesterday

August 19, 2019
Chatty, breezy, and capacious, this global history of humanity by journalist Ansary (Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes) focuses on the power of narrative to shape human behavior and on the interconnectedness of people across the globe. Ansary starts off with the beginnings of human societies, nimbly summarizing the development of tools, languages, trade networks, belief systems, and empires: a page on the religious beliefs of ancient Mesopotamians is followed by another on those of Egyptians, and cuneiform and hieroglyphics are summarized in several paragraphs. Next, he describes the West overtaking the East in ideological and technical innovations after 1000 CE; the eastern peoples crafted societal narratives focused on restoring their former glories, while Europeans’ narratives highlighted the benefits of progress. Their emphasis on Christianity and progress motivated, for example, the conquistadors to subjugate Native Americans. Western mechanical inventions in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries only increased the region’s power. Today, Ansary, concludes, humankind edges toward singularity—when humans and machines effectively merge—and nation-states’s primacy is eroded by globalization. This overview paints a cogent and superficially impressive picture of world history, but it doesn’t have much room for depth, complexity, and argumentation. Readers willing to take Ansary’s word for things, however, can sit back and enjoy the ride.

August 9, 2019

The biggest determiner in human history has not been the famous accomplishments of emperors or other leaders. Narratives are how our species has achieved both our greatest feats (the switch from nomadism to agricultural) and committed our most terrible transgressions (the Holocaust engineered by the Nazis). So contends Ansary (Games Without Rules) in this sweeping work, which makes connections between seemingly unrelated things that eventually culminated in revolution. For example, the Knights Templars became bankers, unintentionally, by safeguarding the wealth of pilgrims to the Holy Land. Their acumen as financial wizards led to their downfall because of papal and royal envy, but their methods were widely emulated. How societies dealt with ideologies from other cultures is what has led to the robust nature of human societies the world over. When faced with new ideologies cultures sometimes absorbed them, such as the Roman adoption of the Greek mythos, or fought vehemently against them, as exemplified by Japan's isolation from Western culture until the 19th century. These meetings, happening often on the theoretical plane rather than on the temporal one, have been the catalysts for our overall progress. VERDICT A masterly effort with an intriguing thesis put forward to explain key factors contributing to human history. Highly recommended.--Brian Renvall, Mesalands Community Coll., Tucumcari, NM

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2019
World history as "a story that we're telling one another." In this intriguing account of humankind from the Stone Age to the present, Ansary (Road Trips: Becoming an American in the Vapor Trail of the Sixties, 2019, etc.) writes, "we live on the same planet but in many different worlds." In 800 C.E., for instance, the Chinese thought their world was the world; other civilizations also believed they lived at the center of their own world model. The author argues that we invent the tribes and other social constellations--the culture--of our own world through narratives based on geographical differences. Viewing the past through this lens, he sees global history as a melding of many master narratives--a "drama of ever-increasing interconnectedness." Trade, warfare, and other interactions caused separate worlds to overlap. "Neighbors influenced neighbors who influenced neighbors," writes Ansary. When Rome conquered the Fertile Crescent, diverse belief systems became part of the Roman state. Jews, for example, encountered the secular-pagan ideas of the Greco-Roman world in their daily lives. The Crusades brought hundreds of ideas and innovations into Europe, from gunpowder to mechanical clocks. Pivotal moments triggered interconnections among major cultures, with great ripple effects: Columbus' discovery of America sparked the rise of corporations and banks in Europe and drew the entire world into "one great global drama." The advent of machines in the 18th and 19th centuries changed the division of labor between men and women. The invention of the transistor in 1947 heralded the digital age. As an Afghan American, the San Francisco-based author draws nicely on his experiences of life in the different worlds of Islam and the secular West to help readers understand the outcomes of overlapping narratives. He examines the role of interconnections in the development of everything from board games to belief systems, science, and multinational corporations. A well-written and valuable take on the diverse narratives that have shaped human history.

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September 1, 2019
Ansary (Games without Rules, 2012) presents a panoramic history of humankind and emphasizes how narrative is both the cause of and potential solution to the world's problems. The ability to tell stories gave Homo sapiens a profound evolutionary advantage over other primates, uniting individuals through common belief systems. But varied topography meant that groups had different experiences, which meant divergent beliefs: the stories of early agrarian societies were different from those of nomadic plains-dwellers, for example. Thus our ancestors' proclivity for narrative reinforced differences between groups, and invited tribalism. As the interconnectedness of humans increases and landscape dictates worldviews less than before, the limitations of us-and-them thinking grow ever clearer. Such concepts as national sovereignty and liberal democracy struggle for legitimacy in a world of powerful technology, mass extinctions, and endemic anxiety. But the solution to the worldwide incoherence may also be our gift for narrative, if we can somehow imagine a world without "them" in which we are all us. Ansary offers a remarkable big-picture synthesis that draws upon geography but resists determinism, and celebrates diversity while embracing humanity's commonalities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)